Time4achange09's Personal Finance Blog

I used my tax return money to pay off my two credit cards, so now both balances are at zero, plus I was able to stick $500 in my savings account. I was trying to remember the last time I was credit card debt free, it must have been 8 years or more ago..that was back when I signed up for the Ameridebt program. It feels extremely great to have zero balances.
The thing that bugs me though is I had been down to one credit card because the last one I paid off a few months ago, I cancelled it because of the yearly fee they charge..so anyway I ended up with a new Walmart credit card because I was stupid and went overdrawn like $350 or so in my checking account, so I signed up for the card at the store where I work and used the cash out of it to stick in the checking account.
Is there a certain age when you stop doing stupid crap like that? I mean, I'm 35 now and really dissapointed at myself for being in the financial shape I'm in. I guess I shouldn't be griping though..these times we're in, a lot of people are in a lot worse shape than me. I think the important thing is to CHANGE...and I'm going to keep working on doing that.

I paid off the smaller of my two credit cards today, the balance was a little higher than I thought but I still feel good for having paid the full amount.
I wasn't sure what the yearly charge is for my two cards, I found out that it's $48...my boyfriend thinks I should cancel at least one of the cards because of this yearly fee. I haven't made up my mind about that yet.

I have made the following plans to pay off my two credit cards:

$307.14 balance Nov 1st 2009
pay $107.14 on Nov 13 2009
pay $100.00 on Nov 27 2009
pay $100.00 on Dec 11 2009
Zero balance.

$305.68 balance Nov 1st 2009
pay $105.68 Dec 28 2009
pay $100.00 Jan 8 2010
pay $100.00 Jan 22 2010
Zero balance.

Then pay off my mom the money that I owe her.
$100 on Feb 5 2010
$100 on Feb 19 2010
$100 on March 5 2010
$100 on March19 2010
Zero balance.

Then my car loan will be around $6200
so if I keep paying $200 a month, I should be debt free in about 2 and a half years.

The money I owe my boyfriend...well I've talked to him about paying him back several times, but he would rather I start saving as much as I can for an emergency fund.